It’s Friday, but Sunday’s Comin’

It’s Good Friday. The day marking the greatest crime ever committed against God and humanity. Planned in detail from eternity past before creation. Authorized by God the Father to bring his Son authority and reign as King of kings over all creation. Agreed to voluntarily by God the Son to bring his Father glory and honor. Empowered by God the Holy Spirit in service to the Father and Son. Such love. Such trust. Such selflessness.

Churches around the world celebrate the crucifixion of Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins and the redemption of our God-rejecting souls. It’s a somber yet joyful time of reflection. We are helpless sinners in need of a sinless helper. Jesus, the righteous One, undeservedly took the penalty for our sin on the cross, paying our unpayable debt and allowing us to take credit for his righteousness, presenting us before the judgment seat of God who declares us not guilty. Not guilty! There has never been, nor ever will be, a more glorious expression of God’s grace and mercy poured out on wretched humanity, ushering those who repent, believe in Christ as Savior, and obey him as Lord into his glorious presence forever.

But something’s missing in the description above. Did you catch it? I don’t blame you if you didn’t. It’s left out more often than included in the portrayal of Christ on the cross. It’s just too gruesome. Too brutal. Too offensive to get your head around it.

It’s not the betrayal of Judas that led to the illegal murder of an innocent God-man. It’s not the pitiless cruelty of the type of death suffered on the cross. If you recoiled in horror from the all-too-graphic crucifixion scene in The Passion of the Christ, you know what I mean. Yes, that was so shocking to all sensibility that it was never discussed even in Roman company.

So what was left out? What was so repulsive that we avoid the topic? It’s the holy and terrible wrath of God poured out on the sin borne by his Son on our behalf. The very thought of it has caused many to call God a merciless child abuser. How could a so-called loving God beat his Son to death like that? How could anybody justify such cruelty, let alone condone it wholeheartedly and worship the perpetrator? It’s unthinkable and inexcusable.

You can explain that God’s righteous justice and love for himself required the punishment of sin, since sin as depicted in the Garden is rebellion against God’s authority, replaced by the desire to be our own gods and pursue our own glory. But that won’t satisfy the accuser. Wrath leading to death is far too much to humanly justify. And I get it. It’s a bitter pill even in my mouth.

So why exactly was the experience of bearing God’s wrath so abhorrent to Jesus that even the mere thought of it caused him enough tortured vexation to sweat drops of blood in prayer, pleading that his Father might somehow offer a Plan B for creation’s redemption? Do you know why? I sure don’t. The Bible doesn’t tell us the mechanics of the process, and I can’t even imagine it.

Some have attempted to describe it, but the result is doomed to failure. Nevertheless, let me offer yet another woefully imperfect (but functional?) illustration. Let's say there were a sticky liquid containing a compound that attracted and drove killer bees into a stinging frenzy on whatever unfortunate living being it happened to cling to. The wrath of the bees would bring certain, violent, and excruciating death. Given this, then, if the crucified Jesus were doused with this vile liquid (the sin of the world), then he would be attacked and stung to death by the killer bees (God's wrath). But as ghastly yet relatable as that depiction is, the reality of what Jesus suffered is beyond description.

Still, let me employ the killer bees metaphor in Biblical terms to describe the result of Christ’s wrath-caused death. By bearing the sting of death, Jesus removed its sting from us (1 Cor 15:55). We will no longer taste the sting of God's wrath in death and separation. So while our sins have already been removed in Christ, and while physical death still awaits us, it's been rendered a sting-less, de-fanged death, robbed of its victory on the cross.

So on this truly Good Friday, let’s meditate on Christ’s loving sacrifice as the perfect Lamb of God, whose death-by-wrath brought glory to his Father and life eternal with God to us. But as good as that is, there’s more. We can’t stop there. As S.M. Lockridge so eloquently preached, “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming!”